or that your tastes are too different to reconcile ).
Well, you're right, Stardust, alone is both best and worst, isn't it? Best because maybe when alone we feel unburdened by expectations, unobserved and free to be honest with ourselves, and worst because that very freedom can lead (and here I speak for myself) to introspection, wallowing and the whole dark spiral of self-recrimination, warped self-analysis and an increased feeling of isolation. Sounds to me like your mother in law is genuinely trying to help - how often I have been advised to 'get out and meet people' when meeting people is the last thing I want to do, the most traumatic thing I can imagine. But it's hard for those who don't suffer depression to understand that we just can't pull ourselves together and cheer up. Rose306 has some good positive advice for you, and I won't add to it, and I know how hard it is to face this kind of situation. If you can, as Rose306 says, 'level with mominlaw'. I felt very uncomfortable talking to my family about my depression, but once I did I was so relieved that I had, and they have been so supportive and understanding, from my eleven year-old son to my eighty six year-old mother. We're cheering for you here, you know, however you choose (and you do have a choice) to handle the situation. That hole of misery always has a ladder leading back up to the clifftop, just sometimes we need a torch to help us see it, and a spot of encouragement to start the climb.
